9th April 2016

A.Sajibu Cheiraoba festival celebrated in Manipur with religious fervor

1.The traditional festival of Sajibu Cheiraoba was celebrated in Manipur to mark the beginning of a new year with cultural gusto and religious fervor. 

2.The festival is mainly observed on the first lunar day of the lunar month Sajibu (March/April) by the Meiteis community, a majority ethnic group of Manipur. 

3.Celebrations On the occasion of Sajibu Cheiraoba, People clean and decorate their houses and arrange joint family feast. 

4.Traditional cuisines are offered to local deities at the entrance gates of the houses. After meals, people start climbing nearby hills in the afternoon to offer prayers. 

5.Thabal Chongba, a local folk dance is also being organized at different locations of Manipur valley.

B.Rajasthan becomes the first state to pass land title Bill

1.Rajasthan state assembly passed the Rajasthan Urban Land (Certification of Titles) Bills, 2016 for providing statutory backing to land records With this Rajasthan has become the first state to pass land title bill for effectively guaranteeing land and property ownership. 

2.Key provisions of the bill 
State residents living in urban areas, which are governed by the municipalities or state development authorities, can seek a certificate of ownership of their lands by paying a nominal fee to the state government. 

3.The state government will set up an authority which will be headed by an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer. 

4.The authority will seek all the documents from the landowners, and will verify it against records held by the state. 

5.It will first issue a provisional certificate for which the state will not stand guarantee. 

6.If there are no objections or dispute arises, the authority will issue a certificate and a map to the owner with state guarantee. 

7.This Bill is seen as one of the key steps towards land reforms as it will create an efficient and transparent modern land market, provide certainty of tenure and end litigation that often mires development projects.

C.Union Government gives nod to India’s first Metrino Pod Taxi project

1.The Union Government has approved country’s first Metrino Pod project i.e. personal rapid transit (PRT) network for Gurgaon, Haryana. 

2.It was announced by Haryana Public Works (Building and Roads) Minister, Rao Narbir Singh. 

3. It will be completely private project and as for financing, the entire investment will be made by the private company that sets up the PRT. 

Key facts 
1.The pilot project will span a 13 km stretch from the Gurgaon-Delhi border to Badshapur Mod on Sohna Road. 

2.The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has submitted the feasibility report for this project. 

3.The private company implementing project will recover its investment in 25 years through tickets. 

4.The fare of Metrino Pod taxi would be similar to that of Metro.

D.Union Government launches ISBN portal

1.The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has launched the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) portal in New Delhi. 


2.It was launched by Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani as part of Union Government’s ambitious Digital India campaign. 

Key facts 
1.The ISBN portal seeks to facilitate publishers and authors to register for allotment ISBN online. 

2.It aims to automate completely the process of seeking application, their examination and allotment of ISBNs. 

3.The portal has developed software has several modules such as users’ registration, online application submission, ISBN generation. 

3.It also includes ISBN generation request from the National Agency to the International Agency at UK. 

4.The automation process will lead to maintain inventory as well as process the data that will be provided by the users. 

5.It will help to move away from traditional process of registration and allotment of ISBN. 

E.Union Government constitutes B B Tandon Committee to monitor Government Advertisements

1.The Union Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has constituted a three-member Committee to see that guidelines set for government advertisements by the Supreme Court are followed. 

2.The committee will be headed by the former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) B B Tandon. Senior TV journalist Rajat Sharma and ad-man Piyush Pandey will be the other two members of the committee. 

Background 
The committee was constituted by I&B Ministry based on the recommendation of the three-member selection committee comprising Press Council Chairman Justice (retd) C K Prasad, I&B Secretary Sunil Arora and advertising professional Prasoon Joshi. Supreme Court order on Government Advertisements In May 2015, Supreme Court in its order had issued Guidelines on Regulating Government Advertisements based on recommendations of Prof NR Madhava Menon Committee.